Metroid: Invasion
by Random Phantasm
Summary: Begins immediately after Metroid: Fusion. Samus is arrested for destroying the BSL station and SR388. One surviving SA-X is taken into custody. Later, a strange army of aliens attacks the Federation. Under attack from enemies new and old, Samus must j
1. Stowaway

Chapter I: Stowaway  
  
The comm buzzed yet again. This time, fed up with trying to ignore it, I punched the terminal hard enough to cave in the electronics. A warning light went off telling me that, surprise, the comm system was inoperative. I smashed that as well.  
"You shouldn't be doing that, Lady," Adam said. "You'll end up in more trouble than you already are."  
"I get that a lot," I said. "Frankly, I don't give a damn anymore. The X and the Metroids are now totally extinct."  
"Well, not completely. Not technically the Metroids anyway."  
Adam was right. The Metroid-based vaccine used to save me from the X at the beginning of this mess had altered my DNA dramatically. I was now, in effect, part Metroid. Even my suit reflected this. My Chozo Power Suit had allowed me to perform feats that the Chozo could do naturally, but this new Fusion Suit makes those powers my own. The suit itself even has the abilities of Metroid tissue. Instead of power conduits running power from my energy tanks to my arm canon, the energy travels through my suit's skin.  
"My scanners have picked up a group of Federation ships heading to intercept us," Adam said. "Given our lack of response to hails, they're most likely going to try to capture and board the ship."  
That didn't surprise me. SR388 was the second planet I'd destroyed in my career. The first had been Zebes after a long struggle against the Space Pirates. While aboard the Biologic Space Labs research station, I'd not only battled against the X parasites and the SA-X, but I had uncovered a secret Metroid cloning program. One of the SA-X had seen to that lab's destruction.  
Now, sure that my troubles with the X were finally over, I allowed myself to relax in my flight couch. By the time I was even aware that there was an SA-X in the cockpit, it had already ripped my helmet off and fired a missile into my screaming mouth. Adam's voice spoke urgently as I awoke from the nightmare.  
"Lady, I'm picking up movement in the starboard engine service corridor. I can't see how it's possible, but I think it's an X."  
I immediately sprang from my flight couch and raced to the service hatch. The door slid open and I dropped down to the service corridor. I headed starboard, my suit generating a faint glow for me to navigate with. Soon, I could hear the sound of something moving. Whatever it was, it sounded at least as heavy as a human. I rounded the corner into the engine service area. I charged my beam and moved cautiously through the darkened hall.  
I could now distinctly hear the sound of four limbs hitting the deck plating. The X was definitely mimicking a human and was crawling on all fours. My light suddenly swept over something that quickly pulled out of sight. I followed the movement and was very much surprised by what I saw. The X was in the form of a naked woman with long blond hair. I aimed my canon and was about to fire when the X turned its stolen face to look at me.  
"Please, don't shoot me," my own voice said from the woman on the deck. "Please. I don't want to die."  
I stood there, frozen, on the spot. This wasn't just an X. This was an SA-X. I stared into my own face as the parasite wore it, cowering on the floor. I stared into its eyes and saw something I couldn't explain. There was not only fear in its stolen mimicry of my eyes, but something else that kept me from pressing the firing control in my canon.  
Before I could snap out of this shock and fire, the ship suddenly rocked from an impact. The jar of the collision threw me off my feet. The SA-X scrambled away from the light. All of a sudden, the access hatch from the outside of the ship blew inward, and a team of Federation soldiers raced in from an umbilical corridor. I was being boarded.  
"Samus Aran," one of the troops shouted, "remain where you are. You are under arrest for the destruction of the BSL research station and the planet SR388. Power down your weapon and cast it aside."  
I rolled my eyes. If I had wanted, I could have reduced every member of that squad to vapor. Their arm canons wouldn't so much as scratch my Fusion Suit. Instead of doing as they ordered, I set my canon to its ice missile setting and turned to follow the SA-X. The lead trooper fired a warning stun bolt over my shoulder. He told me they would open fire if I did not desist.  
"I don't have time for this," I shouted as I kept going.  
"Fire!"  
A barrage of arm canon shots pounded at my armor. Not a one of them did any real damage at all. However, they did use one thing I didn't expect. The crackling waves of a grapple beam suddenly ensnared me. I fought the beam off without much difficulty, but the soldiers continued wrapping their beams around me. With great effort, the soldiers managed to drag me to the floor.  
"You don't understand!" I screamed. "It's an SA-X! It has to die!" I continued to struggle against the beams, when one of the men jabbed a gaseous tranquilizer injector into my rebreather tubes. It took only moments for me to black out.  
  
I awoke in a stark detention cell, aware that my Fusion Suit had retracted within me. Naturally, I had been stripped of my helmet, energy tanks, and arm canon. I was lying on a blue bunk facing the yellow force field that served as the cell's door. As I stood and went to look outside the room, a Federation sentry peeked around the corner.  
"She's awake," he said. Another, older guard looked in from the other side of the force doorway.  
"Tell the commander we're on our way," the second guard said. He tapped a few nodes on the control terminal, and the shimmering barrier vanished. "All right, Ms. Aran," he said, "time for your debriefing."  
I charged the sentries and unleashed my Fusion Suit. The second skin flowed over my body covering everything up to my chin. It enveloped my arms and hands, and slid into place down my legs to my ankles. I struck the older guard off his feet before he could think about firing. I grabbed the younger one by the throat as I saw the squad of twelve heavily armed soldiers waiting outside the cell.  
"Drop him, Aran," the squad leader said.  
"Or what?" I sneered. The guard's strangled voice tried to speak in my grip as he tried in vain to fight me off. I was suddenly aware of a tingling sensation in the arm with which I held him. I looked at him and saw that the color was draining from his face. His struggling was growing weaker with each passing moment, and I realized that the tingle in my arm was his life energy.  
I threw the guard aside, shocked by this new power. The squad leader was saying something, but I could barely understand him through my shock.  
"...your armor or we will open fire. Do it now!"  
I only looked up and clenched my fists. Three of four charge beam blasts caught me in the stomach and chest and hurled me back into the cell. The force field sprang back up immediately. I retracted my suit and climbed up onto the bunk. I was in shock. It was one more Metroid power revealed to me. I, like Metroids, had the ability to absorb the life energy of other beings. 


	2. Emergency

Chapter II: Emergency  
  
I sat on the bunk in my cold cell wearing nothing but the garments I usually wear under my armor. I could have loosed my Fusion Suit to keep me warm, but I didn't feel like enduring the annoyance of the guards shooting at me again. I'd overheard some conversation when the guards on my cell changed shifts. The crew of the ship seemed divided in opinion regarding my destroying SR388. At least there were some people on my side.  
A man I'd not yet seen entered the detention area. He whispered something to the guards; the soldiers left the room. The stranger walked quickly up to the barrier of my cell. I saw by his uniform that he was a lieutenant.  
"Ms. Aran," he said, "I need to talk to you urgently."  
"Just like the other interrogators did?" I retorted.  
"My name is Greg Hildebrandt. I was a good friend of Adam's."  
I said nothing.  
"Some things have come to light about the SA-X that I think you should know about," Hildebrandt continued. "First, we've figured out how it got on board your ship undetected. After Adam took the ship out of the docking bay to flee the Omega Metroid, several of the SA-X attacked it. The Metroid killed and consumed all but one of them. Its battle with that last SA-X was the cause of the blasted out hatch. The SA-X was severely damaged in the fight. It was injured to the point that some of its core DNA had been wiped out."  
"So what?" I snapped.  
"Samus, it used some of your DNA to replace the missing components."  
"What? What does that mean?"  
"It means that the SA-X is part human...part you."  
I was at a loss for words. I could hardly think, let alone speak.  
"It first came to light that the SA-X was different when it didn't fight back when the soldiers that boarded your ship captured it. It still has not shown any aggression toward personnel who approach it. It has not tried to reproduce, escape, or regenerate its Power Suit. The commander had it sent to the Ceres II station for further research."  
"It has to be destroyed."  
"I agree with you. Adam was told that the Federation wanted the SA-X for peaceful applications. That's bullshit. They're planning on using genetic material from you as well as the SA-X to create an ultimate biological weapon."  
"How?"  
"Imagine a strain of X introduced to an enemy environment. The X would be allowed to devour the entire enemy force. Then troops would be sent in equipped with Fusion Suits..."  
"They have more?"  
"Not yet. As of right now, you hold the last bit of Metroid DNA in the universe. The weapons division is counting on you being executed for the incident on SR388 so they can use your cadaver to create artificial Fusion Suits."  
"They can't."  
"They're certainly going to try. It gets worse. The ship carrying the SA-X was also carrying Adam to be reprogrammed. That ship was attacked on the way to Ceres II. The last transmission we received before we lost contact said that the ship with Adam in the computer blasted its way out of the docking bay during the fight. He's not attempted to make contact with the Federation."  
"That could be because I smashed the comm. system."  
"That was repaired before the ship left. We think the SA-X may have hijacked Adam."  
"Damn it. That SA-X was fooling you. I tried to tell you all, the X are extremely intelligent; Now they've learned deceptive tactics. All that SA-X has to do is land on a populated planet..."  
"I know. I also know that you're the only one who can hope to stop it. The entire Federation Army wouldn't stand a chance against the X. You're the one who has to do something."  
"How? I'm awaiting trial and probable execution, remember?"  
"I can help you. The ship will be passing through an area that will cause electrical interference in about an hour. The guards at your cell will change shifts at 1900 hours. Right now, your cell's barrier is wired to energy compensators to prevent you from absorbing the energy and escaping. At exactly 19:13, a program I'm going to run will shut down the compensator, making it look like the effects of the interference. You'll only have a three minute window to act. You have to absorb the barrier and steal a fighter ship."  
"How exactly am I going to manage that unarmed?"  
"You'll think of something. You're Samus Aran and the last Metroid. You won't have a problem escaping."  
The guards reentered the detention area.  
"I have to go," Hildebrandt whispered. "Good luck. 19:13, remember."  
I nodded and sat back down to wait. It was 17:53 at the moment. My window of escape was just over an hour away. The plan was insane. Not to mention all Hildebrandt was putting on the line to help me. I promised myself that I'd get away and stop the SA-X before it was too late. 


	3. Escape

Part III: Escape  
  
Time seemed to slow to a crawling pace. I sat in my cell, watching the clock through the shimmering yellow light of the barrier. Just as Hildebrandt said, a new pair of heavily armored guards replaced the old ones at 1900 hours. Thirteen minutes to wait. I'd never deliberately absorbed energy before. I was anxious as to whether or not I'd be able to drain the barrier in less than three minutes. Ten minutes to go. I wiped my sweating palms on my thighs and sat on the edge of the bunk in anticipation. Seven minutes to go. I tapped my fingers on my knees as I continued to wait. Four minutes. I knew I was sweating with nervousness. I wiped the perspiration from my forehead and stood up. I began to pace, glancing at the clock each time I turned. One minute left. I stood facing the barrier, muscles tense, fingers flexing. I was ready for a fight.  
Just as the clock blinked 19:13, I could sense a change in the barrier's power frequency. My Fusion Suit erupted from my skin, and I thrust my hands into the energy field. An intense tingling feeling rippled through my suit and into my spine. I felt the energy of the barrier being siphoned into my body. I was so captivated by the sensation, that I didn't immediately notice the guards snapping into action and charging their weapons.  
The barrier finally ran out of power, and the guards started to fire. All of my senses were heightened by the infusion of energy. I dodged the beams as if they weren't even moving. I slipped behind the guard on the left and grabbed his shoulders. I pushed him so that his beam blasted the other guard. The latter was down. I ripped off the first guard's helmet and grabbed his neck. I drained just enough power out of him to knock him out.  
"Fire in the detention area. Alert. Fire in the detention area," droned the computer voice along with the now blaring alarms. I raced through the hatch of the detention area before the blast doors could seal it off. As I rounded a corner on the way to the docking bay, I found myself faced with six Federation soldiers.  
I reflexively put my right arm forward and pulled at triggering mechanisms that weren't there. I'd forgotten that I didn't have an arm canon. The thing that surprised me more than my mistake was that one of the soldiers went down having been hit by a blast. The soldiers seemed to be as stunned as I was. I aimed my hand at another and focused my energy. A more powerful blast threw him back into the one behind him.  
It was an incredible revelation: I didn't need an arm canon anymore. I stopped hesitating right there. I charged toward the soldiers, blasting each with enough to keep them down, but not enough to really hurt them. I raced along the corridors, blasting another trio of guards. By now, I could feel my energy dropping. I may not have needed my arm canon anymore, but I was expending a lot more power by firing without one. I took a sideways leap into a room to avoid an oncoming group of guards. By pure chance, I'd hidden in a battle equipment room. I put my right hand into a new arm cannon, strapped on an energy pack, and latched on a helmet.  
I slipped back out of the armory and continued on my way to the fighter bay. I managed to avoid the additional security teams that were combing the ship looking for me. Instead of trying to use a hatch to enter the bay, I morphed into a ball and made my way in through the ventilation ducts. When I returned to my normal form, I snuck quietly to one of the open fighters. I needed a distraction, but my arm cannon was not configured for missiles yet. Just as I thought of that, I felt my Fusion Suit connecting with the weapon. I felt linked mentally to the cannon as it rewired and reconstructed itself to be missile-ready. Incredible! I aimed at a fighter across the bay and fired.  
The explosion drew the attention of everyone in the bay to the destroyed fighter. I used the moment to climb into the fighter I stood by and prep it for launch. By the time the crewmen realized new alarms were sounding for an unauthorized launch, I was already in the air, aiming my charged weapon systems at the bay doors. I punched the throttle as soon as the blast was off. A mere fraction of a second would be all the shields needed to put up an emergency field around the bay, but I was already out of the ship by then. My fighter streaked out into space, away from the ship. Suddenly, a huge bolt of energy shot past the fighter. The capital ship I'd just fled firing on me. I brought the ship around and sped toward the ship.  
I had the navigation system plotting a jump to Ceres II as I charged the capitol ship. My weapons were fully charged, but I had not intentions of trying to destroy the ship, only disable it. I targeted the ship's jump engine and fired the full blast. The engine erupted and vanished in a cloud of vapor. Next, as I turned toward my jump route, I fired a volley of smaller bursts at the ship's communications array. The antennae and dishes were destroyed, and I kept flying toward my jump point. My assailant continued to fire near misses at me, but they would be unable to follow me or notify any other ships of my escape.  
I hit the jump control as I reached the correct point. A burst of acceleration shook the fighter, and it shot off at near-light speed toward Ceres II. 


	4. Invaders

Part IV: Invaders  
  
I accessed my fighter's computer regarding the ship that was attacked on its way to Ceres II. Once I knew where the ship was attacked, I told the navigation system to end my jump at those coordinates. Fifteen minutes later, the fighter gave me a thirty-second warning before the jump ended. Leaving a jump could be very disorienting. I tightened the harness in the flight couch, and braced myself. The fighter came to a lurching halt in the middle of a debris field.  
I started scanning the area for jump drive signatures. Aside from those of the destroyed ship and my own, there were five signatures that would have been consistent with capital ships. No signatures small enough to be from a one-person vessel like Adam. I did notice that the exit jump signatures were headed toward Ceres II. I reset my destination for Ceres II and jumped.  
Ceres II orbited the planet CR423. At least it used to. I arrived at CR423 to find another debris field. I scanned the area. Three of the five capital ships I'd detected the jump signatures of before were orbiting the planet in a group. One of the ships was on the planet's surface, and the remaining one had been destroyed in battle with the station. I found its wreckage near that of Ceres II. The mysterious attack ships were unlike anything in the Federation database. My fighter's proximity alarms started blaring. I was under attack! A squadron of at least two hundred enemy ships were on an intercept course with me.  
I took evasive action, but the other ships were unbelievably agile not to mention fast. It took them a mere twenty seconds of firing to disable my shields. I quickly released my harness, and got ready to jump. As another volley of fire tore my fighter to scrap, I fired the ejection control for the cockpit and soared out, unprotected into space. I threw my weight, putting myself into a spin and activated my Screw Attack. The energy that crackled around me shredded twelve fighters as I somersaulted through them. The squadron broke formation as I began to plummet into CR423's atmosphere. The energy from my Screw Attack protected me from the friction in the planet's thick atmosphere.  
As I plummeted toward the ground at thousands of kilometers per hour, I charged by beam. I fired one charged blast at the large lake I was falling toward, the recoil slowed me considerably. I continued to charge and fire, shedding a hundred kilometers per hour with each blast. I only needed to slow down enough to control my Space Jump ability. Once I had control of it, I continued slowing my fall with timed Space Jumps until I finally was only thirty meters above the water. I twisted my body around and dove into the deep, cold water.  
As soon as the water slowed me as much as it was going to, I fired a charged Ice Beam directly below me. I rode the newly-made iceberg until it broke the surface of the water, when I leaped across the lake onto the solid ground around it. It wasn't a bad landing, really. Especially considering that I'd done it without a ship. Just as I was starting to feel relieved at my escape, an explosion not two meters away from me threw me onto my side. I looked up and saw the squadron soaring down toward me, forming a huge strafing attack pattern.  
"On damn."  
I started to run immediately. Hundreds of explosions tore at the ground behind me as the ships' blasters fired relentlessly. My Speed Booster finally kicked in and I accelerated to a much greater speed, leaving a dust cloud trailing behind me. I chanced a look over my shoulder and saw that the fighters were still gaining on me. Another ten seconds and I'd be history!  
Suddenly the ground fell away beneath me. I tumbled and rolled down a steep slope into a system of catacombs. In the dim light my Fusion Suit began to generate, I suddenly found myself face-to-face with one of my attackers. It stood a good two and a half meters tall with shining black armor all over. A razor-edged blast shield was mounted on it's left arm, and it wore a wrist-mounted blaster. It shrieked and fired. I took the blast full in the chest and toppled onto my back. It removed another weapon from its right thigh and blasted me in the stomach with a even stronger blast. The alien loomed over me and raised its blade-shield.  
As the blade whistled though the air toward my throat, I raised my arm canon into the weapon's path. My weapon exploded, throwing the creature off of me. I sprang onto its chest and fired a blast into his chest plate. The armor superheated and started to glow red. I immediately fired an Ice Beam shot onto the hot armor, causing it to crack open. I thrust my hand into the hole and onto the creature's skin. I let out a cry that frightened me afterward as I drained the alien's life away. Its body crumbled to dust inside its armor.  
I stood up and was about to head deeper into the cave when something in the back of my mind began to tingle. I realized it was one of my new Metroid instincts giving me an alarm. Food. X. I turned toward where I could sense the presence of the parasite and found myself facing the SA-X once again. 


	5. Envoy

Part V: Envoy  
  
From the moment he was "born" he knew what his purpose was. Purpose was something he'd never been without, something he could not live without. He was a weapon built to lead the Space Pirates on their conquest of the galaxy. That was their destiny; that was their purpose.  
Ridley, unlike his "brother," Kraid, was more than a simple attack- dog. Kraid could never have gotten his bloated carcass off Zebes to be anything more than a guard in the Mother Brain's lair. Ridley's task was to lead the Pirate Army, a task at which even Mother Brain had failed. Ridley had made a decision: no more Kraid; no more Mother Brain. Ridley alone would lead the Pirates to their destiny as rulers of the galaxy.  
The one and only being that ever truly stood in the Space Pirates' way was the Hunter, Samus Aran. The Hunter had been interfering with the Pirates' affairs for years, ever since Zebes. If they were ever going to succeed, the Hunter had to be eliminated. Ridley recalled his experiences battling the Hunter...  
Ridley first fought the Hunter in the scorching depths below Norfair. He'd underestimated her then. Initially, Aran had been overcome with terror at the sight of the Space Dragon. That fear was soon replaced by a power and determination unlike any Ridley had ever encountered. The general soon found himself severely wounded and defeated. After the Hunter had left his chamber, Ridley managed to drag his crippled form out of the caves and to his flagship. The Pirates were already working on a means to mechanically enhance their general, and they used this technology to keep him alive.  
The Hunter's mission to destroy the Mother Brain and the Metroids it was manipulating had been successful. The Pirates' fighters shot down her ship as she fled the planet, yet she managed, unarmored, to infiltrate the flagship and the adjacent Chozo ruins and acquire a new, more powerful combat suit. The barely-functional Meta Ridley was no match for the Hunter in her newfound power. The flagship was destroyed and Aran hijacked a Space Pirate fighter to escape the explosion.  
The Pirates that survived the disaster began work on rebuilding Meta Ridley. They used wreckage from the ship until reinforcements arrived with more resources. The Pirates' forces divided. One group remained on Zebes to rebuild the destroyed base and re-create Kraid and the Mother Brain. The other set out to explore new energy sources. Ridley accompanied the latter team. Ridley's mission led him to Talon IV, a planet where a highly radioactive element had arrived on an asteroid. The Pirates named the element "Phazon" and began their experiments. The Hunter interfered again.  
She'd opened a passage to the core of the Phazon meteorite, and Ridley planned to dispatch her and obtain the pure Phazon within. Somehow, Aran had become even more powerful since their last battle. Both combatants on the brink of defeat, the Chozo statuary surrounding their battleground suddenly revealed themselves to be a highly potent weapon. They blasted Ridley with immeasurable force, critically damaging his electrical systems and plunging him into the Phazon crater. Samus ventured into the core of the meteorite and destroyed the Metroid Prime, the source of the element. The entire site collapsed and exploded, the Hunter barely escaping the blast. As Aran's ship sped out into space, Ridley pulled himself out of the smoking debris and activated his distress beacon.  
The Space Pirates on Zebes picked up the signal and rescued their leader. They repaired and enhanced him once more, this time adding systems that would allow Ridley to repair severe damage to himself using nanotechnology to reorganize the molecules of any other substance into compounds that needed for repairs. While Ridley joined the effort to rebuild the Zebes fortress, Aran was on SR388 wiping out the entire Metroid population. Only one Metroid was spared extermination. The Hunter took the hatchling to the Federation to be used for peaceful applications. Ridley, rebuilt and stronger than ever, attacked the Ceres station. The Federation personnel fought back, but the Space Dragon slaughtered them. Once the station was devoid of life other than Ridley and the Metroid, the general took the opportunity to access the Federation network and look for valuable information. It was then that Ridley learned the true identity of the Hunter that had stood in their way for so long.  
Ridley's first mission after his creation was the destruction of the Federation colony on planet K2-L. The Mother Brain had been quite proud of Ridley's success on K2-L. He'd left no survivors, or so he thought. The Federation computers told Ridley that Samus Aran was born Rebecca Aran, a three-year-old girl presumed dead for nearly twenty years after the Battle of K2-L. The file went on to explain that Aran had been raised by the Chozo on Zebes. So many things suddenly made sense: The Hunter's ability to use Chozo artifacts that the Pirates could only baffle at, the combat suit and weapons the Pirates were unable to overpower or replicate, even her name "Samus," the Chozo word for "newborn" or "hatchling."  
Then Ridley heard a familiar set of starpulse engines. The Hunter's ship was docking with Ceres. Ridley destroyed the station and fled back to Zebes with the infant Metroid. Again, Aran stormed the fortress. Again, she dispatched Kraid with embarrassing ease. Ridley himself fell yet again. The Mother Brain was more prepared for Aran this time, but even it failed again. The immature Metroid had imprinted on the Hunter as a mother figure and protected her from the Mother Brain's new Hyperbeam weapon. Giving its life for its surrogate "mother," the Metroid endowed Aran with the ability to use the Hyperbeam and finish the Mother Brain once and for all. The species known as Metroid was extinct.  
The new power core on Zebes reached critical mass and destroyed the entire planet. Only two being survived the blast. The Hunter escaped in her ship. The wreckage of Norfair shielded Ridley enough from the blast that he remained intact enough to begin his self-repairs. Some months after the destruction of Zebes, a Federation salvage ship found Ridley, captured him, and took him to the Biologic Space Labs station orbiting SR388. There, Ridley was put into a subzero containment chamber, infected by the X, and left barely alive before the station and planet's destruction. While the BSL station plummeted through the atmosphere of SR388, Ridley took flight out into space and headed towards the Space Pirate territory. His soldiers recovered him and brought him to his present state.  
Now, Ridley's role among the Pirates was changed. He'd appointed himself Supreme Commander of the Space Pirates' forces. His first order of business was to take part in an envoy to greet the invaders. If the Pirates could join forces with the invaders, they could become closer than ever before to achieving their destiny, their purpose.  
Ridley flew in open space alongside the Pirate frigate Assassin. The ship was transmitting their proposal to the invader's ship on all possible channels. So far, there had been no response, good or bad. When the frigate was a mere two thousand kilometers from the ship, a harsh signal screeched across the Pirates' comm. channel. Ridley switched off his comm. receiver and looked at the ship. His telescopic vision showed him hundreds of tiny points of movement on the exterior of the warship. Canons.  
Ridley reopened his comm. and transmitted the command to take evasive action, but the signal was jammed by the whine of the invaders' transmission. The frigate was going into a full reverse and veering to port. Ridley quickly scanned the area and found hundreds of bogeys all around them. An ambush! A bright flash of light from the invaders' gunship was all that heralded the silent explosion that ripped the frigate to atoms. Ridley was alone and surrounded by enemies. The Space Dragon armed his weapons systems and prepared to fight. If the invaders wanted to kill him, they were in for a hell of a struggle. 


End file.
